


Sweet Tangerines

by AllieRat



Category: Naruto
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Civilian OC, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, im cross posting this from my ff net account so, im only putting those four characters in the characters tag lol
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-12 17:47:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29264517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllieRat/pseuds/AllieRat
Summary: Life as a civilian in Konoha was nothing like the excitement of being a Shinobi, but Mizuki Ueno wouldn't trade her life for anyone else's. She has a thriving bakery, three adorable sisters, and a nice apartment on the outskirts of the Village. When a Shinobi with grey hair enters her life, the quiet, idyllic moments take a drastic turn. [Civilian OC x Kakashi]
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Original Character(s)
Kudos: 18





	1. Chapter 1

(( **A/N:** Title taken from the song "Sweet Tangerine" by The Hush Sound. I'd recommend listening to it! Also; the Ueno clan is my own invention, as far as I'm aware it doesn't exist in canon. If you're interested, you can read a bit about their history during the Warring States period in my other Naruto fic, Wisteria And Roses(still being written tho, chapter 4 is in the works as I upload this). Also, the image(for those of you not on mobile who can actually see the pic lol) is my own art, of Mizuki Ueno! If you're reading this on AO3, you can go to my tumblr (artist-assassin) and look at my Sweet Tangerines tag to see any art I make of this fic. 

I hope you enjoy the read!))

* * *

Mizuki Ueno was born on August 29th.

She was born with the signature silver hair of the Ueno Clan, but her eyes were a light brown instead of the expected purple. No matter, they thought, she simply took on genes from both parents. Her fair skin was healthy, her body plump with baby fat. Moments after she was born and placed in her mother's arms, securely swaddled in a wisteria decorated blanket, she laughed. Laughed long and loud, all bright gummy smiles and happy eyes.

The Clan celebrated for a week straight. She was the first child to the Clan Head, the girl who would become the Clan heir. She would spend her life training to fulfill her role in the Ueno's future in Konoha, and one day, when her parents passed away, she would take on the responsibilities of leading them to newer heights and a brighter future. The Clans in Konoha were always competing to be 'at the top' in a sense, despite there being no clear list of any sort of outer Clan hierarchy in the village. Still, from a young age the people of the Ueno Clan made it clear that they had high, high hopes for this bright young girl.

Mizuki Ueno made it clear as early as possible that she had no interest in any of this.

At three, her father tried to convince her to paint the Clan symbol with sumi-e. She had drawn smiley faces, stick figures of her family, and a single butt that she childishly lost her marbles laughing at every time she looked at it. Her father had laughed with her, saying she was a menace of a girl.

At four, her mother tried teaching her the Clan hierarchy. Little Mizuki Ueno had thrown a fit out of sheer boredom, crying until her face turned red and making a mess of her mother's painting room. She'd been reprimanded harshly for that, scrubbing pots for a week amongst other little punishments.

At five, her little sister was born. Kaoru Ueno. She was born with the perfect Ueno Clan looks - a head of perfectly soft, silver hair, light purple eyes the same shade as wisteria, and fair, delicate looking skin. Like a porcelain doll. She was a healthy, bouncing baby, just the same as Mizuki had been. Mizuki fell head over heels in love the moment she laid her muddy brown eyes on the young infant. One night, she clutched the tightly swaddled child to her chest under the strict supervision of her tired mother. With her brown eyes full of tears, she looked up at her mother and said in her childish, stumbling Japanese;

"She can become Clan Head instead of me, right?"

Her mother had been so furious. She sent Mizuki away to her room for the rest of the next day, the young girl eating her breakfast and lunch in her bedroom and only being allowed out again for dinner with her family. Mizuki didn't understand why she'd gotten into trouble for that - it was a legitimate question, in her mind. Little Kaoru had the perfect Clan looks, surely they would have preferred someone with "perfect genes" to lead them to a better future? The Clan elders had always been fond of pointing out how Mizuki had the brown eyes of her father - the man who'd _married_ into the Clan, not been born into it - and a complexion just a few shades too warm to match her mother's looks.

At six, she had another little sister. The healers had been worried about her mother, telling her that it was unwise to have children again after only a year of healing from her last pregnancy. She told them it was a conscious choice and she knew what she was doing - but Mizuki had heard the late night discussions between her parents. She knew that this pregnancy was not a purposeful one, her mother was just too proud or too stubborn to admit as much. And she absolutely refused to terminate it for her own health.

Her second younger sister was named Noriko Ueno. She had their father's light brown hair, but their mother's wisteria purple eyes. Mizuki loved her, too. She spent every waking moment tending to Noriko's needs. She fetched her toy when the infant girl threw it across the room in a fit of baby rage, she made silly faces to keep her entertained when the babysitter was busy with Kaoru, and on nights where she couldn't sleep, she cradled the young girl in her arms as delicately as she was taught to hold her mother's fine tea set.

At seven, Mizuki noticed that she was spending less and less time with Kaoru. She tried to search for her little sister more often, tried to ask her for a game of hide-and-seek or to play pretend together. For some reason, however, Kaoru's time was being spent up with their parents. Every opportunity she got, Mizuki tried to play games with her sister, and every opportunity she got, Kaoru was whisked away for another lesson with Mother. Admittedly, little Mizuki felt a sting of bitter jealousy for the first week after realizing this, something about being an eldest child and wanting the proper amount of attention the title should have gotten her, then quickly forgot about it. Her childish mind wouldn't let her focus on it for too long, immediately distracted with her youngest sister's need to be picked up and spun around. That was something she could do well.

At nine, she meets a little boy. He looks like he's older than her, but just an inch shorter and so she took a great deal of pleasure in calling him _little_ anyway. She was wandering around the Ueno Clan grounds with a stick, poking the dirt at random intervals as she went, and found him standing underneath one of the wisteria trees grown on the property.

"Who're you?" He'd asked her with narrowed black eyes and a mess of spiky, black hair atop his head. There was a pair of goggles stuffed into his pants pocket.

"Who are _you?_ " She countered with all the haughty indignation a nine year old girl could muster. It was quite a lot. "You're on Ueno grounds."

He stood up from where he had been kneeling in the dirt, wiping his hands on his black pants before offering up a smile to her. The smile was big and reached all the way to his eyes, something that her father had taught her meant it was a _real_ smile, not a fake one that some people gave you when they wanted something from you. He taught her a lot about how to tell when someone was being _fake_ with you.

"I'm an Uchiha!" He puffed up with pride, pointing a thumb to his chest with a grin, and though Mizuki knew the Clan name and the importance it held thanks to the various lectures she had always tried to get away from, she didn't quite understand what that had to do with the situation they were in.

"That's nice," she said, but it was a lie. She didn't care at all. "But you're still on Ueno grounds. Go away or I'll call the guards."

She crossed her arms over her chest, stick forgotten on the ground and an angry pout on her features. Something about this boy not answering her question all the way had ticked her off. She wanted to prove, somehow, that she was someone he should listen to. The only solution her nine year old mind conjured up to fix this issue was to flaunt her family name and the power behind it. Maybe if she had been just a bit older she could understand that that was, in fact, exactly the same thing this other boy was doing to _her_ by introducing himself as an Uchiha.

His dark eyes widened, and he quickly stuffed the pair of goggles over his eyes.

"Wait, wait, I'll go! Ah, you're not nice at all!" He shouted, a nervous lilt in his voice as he began inching around her like she was a feral animal.

Mizuko Ueno stomped her foot on the ground, furious. "I _am_ nice! I'm a nice girl! Otou-san says so!"

The Uchiha boy got a few feet away from her before he pointed at her in an exaggerated expression and said, "Your otou-san's a liar! Meanie!" Then he stuck his tongue out at her and ran away, clear off the Ueno Clan grounds altogether.

For all her childish maturity, being insulted still stung. She sniffled wetly to herself, now alone, and brought up one foot to stomp on the ground as hard as she could - it was a tactic her father taught her, something to do to get rid of the "extra energy" when she was mad, and though it made her leg sting sometimes if she stomped _too_ hard, it tended to work - before she finally noticed something and paused.

She put her leg back down on the ground, her balance not quite good enough to stand on one foot alone, and wiped away the tears in her eyes as she looked down at the area the boy had been crouched in.

Worms. Two worms, all wet and wriggly, were trying to dig their way into the dirt. She was sure they had been out in the sun just an hour ago, she'd come out here a while back and stared at the drying out worms with a sense of curiosity, not understanding that they would die if they stayed in the dry sun. The Uchiha boy had moved them into the cool shade, then? Why?

She pouted, remembering the sting of his insult and turning around to walk back to the Clan compound. She wanted to complain to her father about the mean little boy, wanted to find Kaoru and play tag, wanted to cuddle close to Noriko and forget her worldly worries (she didn't have many as a little girl, but it sure felt like she did).

Three months later, she met the little boy again. He was walking down a street with two other people, a girl and a boy. Mizuki was clutching her father's hand, walking down through the marketplace together and using her puppy eyes when necessary to get a sweet treat that she knew her mother wouldn't let her have if she were here. The moment she spotted him, she stared and stared. She had a vague sense that she knew him from somewhere, but couldn't quite place a name to it. Eventually, she stared so much that the companions he had with him noticed her, as if they could feel the sting of her brown eyes on the back of their necks.

The girl, who had hair the same shade of brown as Mizuki's eyes, nudged the dark haired boy with her elbow, pointing over at Mizuki and saying something. Both the dark haired boy and his other boy companion, someone with grey hair just a few shades too dark to be Ueno silver, turned to look curiously. Mizuki was too far away to hear their words, but she found that she didn't like being pointed at. It felt like they were whispering secrets about her, and she tugged on her father's hand to get his attention.

"What is it, Mizu?" He asked, a gentle smile on his tanned features as he looked down at his daughter. His brown eyes were prettier than Mizuki's, the girl always thought, but he denied it every time she said as much like a false accusation.

She pointed a finger at the boy with spiky hair, a frown on her lips. "He called me mean," she said, doing her best to not mutter. Her mother always told her that muttering was 'unbecoming of a lady', and though Mizuki didn't always understand what that meant, she knew that if she did things that were _unbecoming_ she would get into trouble.

Her father followed her finger, looking on curiously. He blinked in surprise. "Just now?" He asked, confused.

"No!" She shook her head of silver hair. Before she could say more, someone shouted a quick 'hey!' and she turned to look.

The girl with brown hair was clutching the spiky haired boy by the elbow, dragging him over to them. She was pretty, Mizuki thought, and had purple markings on her cheeks. _Sometimes shinobi have paint_ , her father had explained to her once many years ago, _and sometimes they have stickers_. Mizuki wondered which one this girl was wearing. If she tugged on her cheeks, would the purple wipe away? Or come clean off like a sticker?

"Hello," her father greeted them politely, still a bit confused by his daughter's earlier words but offering a shallow bow anyway. He put down the apples he'd been looking over for bruises.

The brown-haired girl bowed back, deeper than her father's as a sign of respect. "I'm sorry to interrupt you, Ueno-san," she said in a sweet, cheerful voice. The correct honorific for Mizuki's father would have been _-sama_ , but he didn't correct the girl. "But my teammate here apparently said something rude to your daughter. He's here to apologize."

"Oh," her father looked down at Mizuki. She _told_ him the boy had called her mean, and she felt a sense of vindication at her words being proven true.

The spiky haired boy looked down at his shoes with a frown, scuffing the open-toed sandals in the dirt like he didn't want to say what he was being told to say. Mizuki could understand that. Sometimes she did something funny to a Clan elder, like making a fart sound with her mouth when they sat down or putting a bug in their drink, and her mother forced her to say she was sorry even though she wasn't.

The boy behind him, with grey hair a few shades darker than Mizuki's, looked at her with intense dark eyes. Mizuki felt uncomfortable under his gaze, like he was searching for something in her eyes. She purposefully looked away from him.

The brown haired girl whacked the spiky haired boy on the arm, and he yelped and quickly did a shallow bow.

"I'm sorry I called your otou-san a liar!"

Mizuki frowned, apparently unhappy with the apology. She hadn't even thought about that part, too caught up in the personal insult he'd said. "You called me mean!"

Her father looked back and forth between her and the boy, a bit confused but mostly amused. His daughter was young, and he found it rather funny how she categorized which insult was the worst - saying that the Head of the prominent Ueno Clan was someone not to be trusted, or saying his daughter was a bit mean. If he were stricter like his wife, he was sure he would be insulted by the boy's words.

Instead, he laughed it off and waved his hand.

"It's alright, it's alright. How about I buy us all some dango and we forget it ever happened?"

Predictably, his daughter agreed immediately, the temptation of her favorite sweet treat too much for her to ignore in favor of the insult having gone un-apologized for. The girl with brown hair and the Uchiha boy both nodded along as well, bright smiles on their faces at the kind gesture of a stranger. The boy with grey hair was unreadable, looking away and stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"I'll pass, thanks," he said in a polite yet uninterested tone, turning around to walk off on his own.

The girl with brown hair turned to look at his back, worry in her eyes. "You don't want to come with us, Kakashi?"

 _Kakashi._ It was the only name that Mizuki had gotten from the trio so far, so she mentally filed it away as something important.

"I don't like dango," he said matter of factly. The brown haired girl accepted the answer with quiet resolve, turning around and smiling at the two Ueno strangers again.

"Thank you for the offer! I'm Rin Nohara! It's very nice to meet you!" She bowed low again, in respect and gratitude for the promised treats. When she raised her head, she looked over at Obito with a smile, and the boy grinned and pointed a thumb to himself just the same as he'd done all those months ago during his first meeting with the silver-haired girl.

"I'm Obito Uchiha!"

Her father smiled down at the children before him.

"I'm Yuuta Ueno. This is my daughter," he placed a comforting, warm hand on Mizuki's back and she offered a smile to the two. "Mizuki Ueno."

Obito finally apologized for calling her mean over their dango, and she accepted it with a smile. She made him pinky promise not to call her any names anymore, and he agreed to it with a grin and a firm nod of his head.

When she turns ten years old a few months later, her mother announces another pregnancy. The healers did some tests and announced with a hesitant smile that her mother "told signs" of another girl (Mizuki had no idea how they could "tell signs" of the gender of the baby before it was born, but she didn't have the mind to ask them either). Her father cracked a joke about being desperate for a boy this time around, but Mizuki could tell he was only kidding. He loved his daughters dearly, and they loved him just as much.

True to their word, the healers came back months later only to deliver another girl into the Ueno main family. This girl was named Suzume Ueno, and had an unusual coloring to her hair. Most of it was the silvery white color of the Ueno bloodline, but a few strands in the front held the brown coloring of her father's. Her eyes were purple like wisteria, and her skin was the same tanned color as her father's as well.

Some people made comments about little Suzume's hair, but Mizuki silenced them all with stern words of the repercussions that would come about when insulting the Clan Head's daughter. They shut up very quickly. Mizuki knew what it felt like to listen to people whispering about the way you looked - she'd grown up with the whispers about how the firstborn daughter didn't look like a pureblood Ueno - and she refused to let her baby sister deal with the same thing.

Sometimes Mizuki still looked into the mirror and cursed her brown eyes and too-warm skin tone.

When she turns eleven years old, Kaoru goes on a long trip with their mother. Mizuki didn't know where they'd gone off to, and a small part of her wanted to throw a fit and demand that _she_ should have gone as well because she was the oldest, but a larger part of her was just glad to be able to sleep in while her mother was away.

It was always her mother who held up the strict routine that Mizuki had gotten used to over the years. Wake up with the sun, wash in the morning, practice kanji and painting and tea making, spend the day doing various chores and physical labor, then wash in the afternoon and head to bed. Mizuki had never understood why she had to wash twice a day - she never got that dirty, and she especially didn't understand washing early in the morning. Brushing her teeth was fine and made sense completely, as her morning breath was gross and she was glad to be rid of it. But she didn't get dirty while she slept, so what was with that?

Sometimes she thinks her mother gives her extra work to do for fun. To make up for the early years of Mizuki refusing to learn Clan things.

She _still_ refused to learn Clan things, actually. Maybe her mother was still making up for it.

On the first day, she sleeps until it's almost noon, waking up several times but deciding she was just too warm and comfortable to get up. She only fully wakes when a dirt-streaked Noriko comes bounding into her room and flopping down on top of Mizuki's futon with all of her five-year-old body weight. Mizuki learns that young children are heavier than they look and lets out a quiet wheeze as the air is forced from her lungs.

"Nee-chan! Get uuup, tou-san is making breakfast!" The girl was all giggles, the idea of their father cooking a funny thought to her. Mizuki knew that he used to cook much more often, when she was a very little girl. She remembers his home-cooked meals with fondness; sometimes he had let her join him, and she'd been enraptured with the idea of making raw materials into delicious foods ever since until it had become a well-known hobby of hers. She wondered why he ever stopped and left the cooking to some Clan servants to begin with.

She grumbled something under her breath, digging further into the comforters of her bed. Noriko found this to be unacceptable.

"No! Get up, get up, _get up!_ " She jumped up and down on top of Mizuki, and the older girl almost - _almost_ \- gave in just to make her stop. But she was nothing if not stubborn, a trait her father often said she got from her mother.

"Get- off- Noriko-!" She said in between grunts as the girl hopped up and down.

"I want food!" She cried indignantly. "You gotta get up!"

Mizuki threw the covers off, finally unable to withstand any more of her younger sister's "method" of waking her up. Noriko smiled when she saw Mizuki sit up straight, but quickly let the grin drop when she saw the angry expression on her sister's face. Mizuki's clothes were a wrinkled mess, half in thanks to her night of moving about in her sleep and half in thanks to her morning routine with Noriko. Her silver hair stuck to her face in the warmth of the room, and Mizuki wiped them away with a frown.

"Am I… in trouble?" Noriko asked in a quiet, miserable voice. There was dirt smeared on her hands and cheek, and Mizuki noticed with a frown that she got it all over her futon and blanket. Noriko deflated from her earlier bouncing, lowering her head of brown hair and folding her hands in her lap.

Mizuki _wanted_ to keep up the angry look, wanted to teach Noriko to not do that anymore, but when she noticed the young girl was taking on the "proper form of a lady" that their mother taught them to do, she snorted. That was her attempt at appearing sorry? To fold demurely and act all proper and calm?

"Oh! I'm not!" Noriko returned right back to her earlier smile and cheerful tone, her sister's amusement the only confirmation she'd needed of not being in trouble.

"Yes you are," Mizuki said in a tired voice, a small smile still on her face as she moved to stand. Her futon was a miserable _mess_ thanks to her sister's actions.

"No I'm not!" Her little sister laughed, getting up and running out of the room, shouting a quick, " _breakfast!_ " on the way out.

Mizuki shook her head at the girl's antics. She stood up on her tippy-toes to stretch, yawning loudly. As soon as she was done getting all the stiff tiredness out of her body, she leaned down to fix her futon and take the now-dirty comforter off. Even though her mother wasn't here to check the tidiness of her room and make sure there wasn't a _hair_ out of place, Mizuki found herself doing it anyway. Maybe the good habits would actually stick.

"Good morning," she called out tiredly as she entered the dining area. The room was filled with a delicious smell, something savory and sweet mixed together. She peered curiously into the kitchen where she watched her father's back as he flitted from one burner to the next. Again, she had to wonder why he ever stopped cooking homemade meals altogether - he was _good_ at it. Not only at the speed and dexterity of it, but his food always tasted downright delicious, too.

He turned around at her voice and smiled, his long brown hair tied into a low bun.

"Good morning, Mizu. Did you wash up?"

She pouted at him.

"Okaa-san's not here, why do I still have to do it in the morning? Can't I just bathe before bed?"

He tutted, shaking his head at her as he turned back around to continue his cooking. "You don't do it just because your okaa-san tells you to. You do it because it's a good habit to form, okay?" Mizuki didn't quite believe him, still firm in her ideals that she had no reason to bathe in the mornings because there was no way she got so dirty while she slept, but she grumbled out some words of affirmation and left to clean herself.

She placed a big, wet smooch on Suzume's forehead as she walked past, sending the one year old girl into a fit of laughter.

"Me too, nee-chan! Me too!" Noriko called from where she sat beside the infant girl, looking at her elder sister with wide, hopeful eyes. Somehow, Noriko had already gotten clean from earlier, now spotlessly sitting at the breakfast table. Mizuki leaned over and placed a kiss on her forehead too, wiping her brown hair away from her eyes. Noriko giggled. Mizuki had no idea how the girl remained so excited and energetic this early in the morning.

The rest of the day passed in a mostly quiet blur. Nothing out of the ordinary happened - it turned out that, despite their father always being the more lenient of their two parents, he was determined to stick to the routine their mother set for them anyway. Her sleeping in so much on the first day was apparently just a mistake on his part, having sent Noriko to wake her up hours earlier only to find out the girl had gotten distracted when spotting a stray leaf on the porch just outside the main doors that she thought was a butterfly. When she learned it wasn't, she went on a search to go find one.

 _That explains why she had dirt on her while waking me_ , Mizuki thought with a blend of amusement at her sister's antics and bitterness at having to do extra chores in washing her comforter.

The second and third day were a little louder, filled with just a little more energy from the two youngest girls as their father tried to juggle handling them on his own and taking over Clan duties with their mother gone. She was typically the one who did most of the work, and when Mizuki had asked about it once, her father had explained that it was her mother that was Head of the Clan while her father was just… the husband to the Head of the Clan. He'd married into it, not been born into it, so the duties and responsibilities technically weren't his to handle.

Still, eventually he settled on calling in one of the other Ueno women to babysit the young girls. Although Noriko whined at not being able to spend all her time with her father, she was more than glad to have other children to play with. Suzume slept through most of the days, either eating or crying about something when she wasn't.

On the fourth day of no mother and no Kaoru, Mizuki finally asked her father where they had gone and why they were away for so long.

"Kaoru is meeting with other Clan figures, Mizu. Her mother went with her because it's the respectful thing to do. It would have been insulting to send me in her place, because I'm not Head of the Clan, get it?" Mizuki had paused, then shook her head _no._ She didn't get it.

Her father put his ink brush down, in the middle of painting or writing something. Mizuki wasn't curious enough to look.

"You don't want to be Clan Head when you grow up," he said softly, like that would explain everything. Mizuki shook her head again. No, she didn't want that. All the politics that her mother tried to teach her, all the rules she was told she had to follow as an Heiress to the Ueno Clan, it had bored her all to death.

Suddenly, she remembered how Kaoru's time had been all taken up with their parents over the years. And suddenly, she remembered that her lessons of Clan politics and hierarchies had… stopped at some point. When? She furrowed her brows and wracked her memories, trying to recall.

Had it really been years since her last lesson with mother? Had she really never noticed all this?

"Kaoru is Clan Heir now?" She asked tentatively, like she was on the cusp of getting the answer right and needed validation.

Her father nodded.

"Kaoru is Clan Heir now."

Promptly after he'd gotten that lesson through Mizuki's thick skull, he'd been called away by a Clan member to handle something-or-another. Mizuki was told to go play with her sisters, or find something else to occupy her time with so she wasn't left doing nothing all day. She went on a leisurely walk, thinking over the conversation with her father and wondering how she felt about it all.

Firstly - she was _relieved_. Relieved that she was no longer Clan Heir, that she no longer had to do political lessons and learn every Clan Head's face and name. She hated seiza and tea ceremonies with pin-straight postures and her hair all done up in a heavy style on top of her head. She hated having to play a game of are-you-telling-me-the-truth-or-are-you-manipulating-me. She hated having to learn all the little tics people gave off when they were hiding something - she never even knew why that was important to begin with. It was a neat trick now that she had little sisters, for sure, but she had no idea why that was useful with Clans. Couldn't everyone just be honest with each other? What was with all the shadowy stuff and manipulating and owing favors to each other if they did something nice?

Secondly - she felt _stupid_. Looking back through her memories as if with a fine sift, combing through all her interactions with Clan members, she finally realized that the last time she'd had a lesson with her mother was when she was _seven_. Mizuki was eleven, almost twelve, now. Almost five years of no lessons or duties and she had never noticed. She was downright _blind!_

Thirdly, and the most important - she felt _guilty._ She wondered if Kaoru wanted any of this. She was a smart girl, devoted and calm, but just because you were _qualified_ for a position didn't automatically mean you _wanted_ it.

It was with this guilty sting in her heart that she found a familiar face.

She kicked a little pebble under her feet, keeping up with it as she walked like it was on the walk with her.

"Oi," a soft voice called to her. She looked up into dark eyes and grey hair. He wore a shinobi's hitai-ate on his forehead, something that Mizuki had never noticed before. She also hadn't noticed the bags under his eyes, and she wondered if they were new. He was sitting on a stone bench a few feet away from her, under the shade of a tall oak tree. His arms were crossed over his chest.

"Hello," she responded in a hesitant voice. What did he want from her? Why was he calling out to her, interrupting her childish brooding?

"You're…" He blinked at her, hesitating for a moment. "Mizuki Ueno?"

She pursed her lips, nodding. He didn't remember her name for a moment, and she couldn't deny she felt just _slightly_ insulted at that. Then she tried to remember when the last time they hung out was, and she realized it's been over a year. She'd seen him and his teammates - Obito and Rin - around the village from time to time, but she never called out to them or asked them out to dango with her again. They always seemed busy and she had never wanted to interrupt.

"Yeah. You're…" She knew his name perfectly, but she paused to copy the way he'd referred to her anyway. "Kakashi Hatake."

He seemed to realize she was teasing, and his eyes narrowed. She grinned at him. She couldn't see his mouth underneath the dark blue mask he wore, but she knew the crinkles in the corners of his dark eyes meant he was probably smiling.

She walked closer to him, forgetting her pebble altogether. When she got close enough, she plopped down next to him on the stone bench, close enough that the fabric of their shirts touched.

"How have you been, Mizuki-san?" He asked her, looking away. He looked uncomfortable all of a sudden, and Mizuki had no idea why. He sounded like he was trying to be all mature and adult-like, with the phrasing of his words and the level tone of his voice. She hummed in thought, looking him over. He was young, like her, but she didn't know _how_ young.

"I'm fine. How old are you?"

The sudden topic switch caught him off guard and he looked over at her with slightly wide eyes.

"Er… Twelve. How.. how old are _you_?"

She smiled. "Eleven. You're one whole year older, huh? And you're a shinobi? That's so cool!"

Mizuki had never wanted to be a shinobi herself. Her mother was one, but she'd apparently retired years ago when she got pregnant with her first child. Her father wasn't one, but he was still strong and quick. Maybe he'd started training to be one years ago, but never went through with it? Mizuki filed a mental note away to ask him about it later.

A small blush crept onto Kakashi's face, looking down at his hands.

"You think so?" He asked, sounding torn between being uncertain of the sincerity of her words and being confident from the compliment.

"Yeah!" She nodded enthusiastically, leaning a bit closer to poke at his forehead protector. "You fight, right? You can do ninjutsu and stuff? That's amazing! I never wanted to be a shinobi, but I still think _other_ people who are shinobi are cool."

He looked dumbfounded, apparently unused to this much attention. All his life, being a shinobi was just _expected_ of him. He never thought it was anything special, other than in his early years when he'd wanted to be as great as his father-

As the thought crossed his mind, his mood immediately soured. He frowned beneath his mask - though the girl in front of him couldn't tell - and looked away from her with narrowed, cloudy eyes. He stood up from his spot on the bench and stuffed his hands into his pockets, looking down at his open toed sandals with a miserable look in his eyes.

"I gotta go," he said simply before he began walking off.

"Ah, wait!" Mizuki called. He didn't stop at her words, but when he felt her cool fingers tug at the fabric of his sleeve, he paused. He turned just slightly to look at her. She took in a breath, seemingly confused about what to do now that she actually had his attention. For a moment, silence.

"What-" He began, but as soon as the word flew from his mouth, the girl bowed deeply. He blinked, confused and curious. She bowed at the waist, deferring to him with deep respect. What had he done to earn this?

"Thank you for protecting us, Kakashi-san."

Her words stung his heart for some reason. He couldn't tell why - there was no insult to them, no hidden meanings behind a simple _thankyou_. He took a deep breath in, telling himself that he had to control his emotions - only a foolish shinobi would let his emotions dictate his actions ( _the emotions of protecting a teammate, as if that was more important than the mission itself_ ).

She held the bow for a few seconds longer, then stood up again. There was a bright smile on her lips when she looked at him.

"You fight in the war, right? With your teammates? It's very brave of you. Please pass my thanks on to Rin and Obito, too! And tell them you guys are always welcome back for more dango! I'll even pay next time," her gentle smile turned into a teasing grin, patting the pocket of her pants as if she were rolling in ryo.

His hand twitched, suddenly needing to rub the back of his neck sheepishly, but he forced the nervous tic down and hid it by stuffing his hands into his pockets again. He fought the urge to look away from her earnest, kind eyes.

"...You're welcome."

With that, he turned around and left as quickly as he could without flat out running away from the girl.

She watched him go with a curious tilt of her head, then turned around and began walking back home. She needed to ask her father if he was ever in Shinobi training. He was way too quick to be a regular civilian, she thought.

* * *

(( **A/N:** I really wanted to convey the differences that I thought there were between Shinobi children and Civilian children. Even though Mizuki is the eldest daughter in a prominent Clan, she's still not a Shinobi, and therefore she doesn't have to have that same maturity that ninja kids have to have. They're going out to war and fighting impossible battles at such young ages, so they don't have a choice in being mature and disciplined at eight or nine, but Mizuki is a civilian kid and is allowed to act more… normal. Childish and stupid, you know? So that's why she does silly things and still throws fits and complains about unimportant stuff, even though she's only a year younger than team Minato.

Reviews are love! Thanks!))


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ((A/N: Thank you for everyone who favorited, followed, or commented for the last chapter! It really means a lot to me. Every one of you put a goofy little grin on my face as I wrote this next chapter (:
> 
> The first few chapters of this fic (maybe up to the first 4?) are mostly about me setting up her character and showing what her childhood/teenage years were like. We'll get into the thick of her bakery and her blooming relationship with Kakashi (and the rest of team 7, because I love those kids with my whole heart) afterwards. Thanks for being patient! Enjoy the read!))

Curiously, she never seemed to see Obito or Rin around the village anymore. She saw Kakashi once, months after that fateful meeting on the stone bench, but he looked… Blank. There was simply no other way to explain it. His eyes were cast over like they were empty, devoid of any life at all, and when she called out to him from across the street, he glanced over her as if he didn't see her at all. Then he promptly turned around and disappeared so quick it was as if he had flickered out of existence. None of the three kids ever came by for dango again.

Sometimes, if she looked very closely on the rooftops as she went shopping with her father or took her sisters out for a walk to a local lake, she would spot a figure in the distance. Someone with a messy shock of grey hair, wearing an animal-shaped mask.

Sometimes Mizuki thought the strange figure was looking right at her, but when she stared back at them, they turned away and leapt off of the roof to go elsewhere.

She pointed it out to her sister once, only for Noriko to cry and wail to their father about a creepy masked hooligan following them. Mizuki had to calm her down and explain to a very worried father that, no, they weren't being followed by anyone, they just saw someone with an animal mask on a roof while they were out on a walk. Her father had explained with a small smile that the masked figure was likely ANBU, someone who worked directly for the Hokage and fought hard to protect the people of Konoha. Noriko was a lot less scared of the people on the rooftops after that, pointing them out excitedly whenever she saw another one.

"Look, nee-chan! Look, they protect us!" Noriko pulled on her sister's hand to get her attention. "Can we go say thank you?"

Mizuki smiled down at her. "No, Noriko. They work hard, so let's not bother them."

The little brunette girl always pouted, but accepted either way.

The rest of the year passed in quiet peace, Suzume growing old enough to babble half-understood sentences and Noriko never growing out of her childish desire to be the center of attention at all times. Kaoru had come back from her trip with their mother a few months after they'd first departed, and though she hugged Mizuki when she entered the Clan house again for the first time in months, she was quickly whisked away for more lessons or training.

Mizuki tried, once, to ask Kaoru if she _wanted_ to be Clan Heir, but the younger girl simply looked at her elder sister like she was stupid.

"Does it matter?" She asked simply. Mizuki's heart ached, wondering if her desire to be free of Clan politics had caused her sister to be chained down in her stead. That was the last thing she wanted.

Before she could explain that, _yes, what you want matters,_ Kaoru was pulled away for something or another. She left with a smile and a quick hug to her elder sister, which Mizuki held tightly to until Kaoru complained that she was squeezing her too hard.

When Mizuki turned twelve, she sat down with her father and mother in order to discuss marriage.

"You're not the Clan Heir," her mother said with a sense of detached anger - like a fury that had cooled off years ago but never quite disappeared - "But you're still the oldest of my daughters. Marrying you to another prominent Clan would be beneficial."

Although Mizuki blushed furiously at the idea of marrying a boy, she sat straight in her cushion with a stern expression on her face. This was a serious matter, something she couldn't get out of by acting childish and silly.

"Of course," her father joined in on the discussion, "We would never marry you off to someone you didn't want to be with. You'll have years to get to know each other before you're both old enough to marry, after all."

Mizuki frowned. She knew her father was attempting a placating tone, trying to juggle giving her what she wanted and doing what he knew was necessary for the Clan.

"I don't want an arranged marriage at all," she spoke in a cool, reserved tone. She would approach this the best that she could, but she would _not_ step down from it.

Her parents look like they expected as much from her, her father frowning sadly and her mother sighing angrily. Mizuki knew her sisters, all three of them, were sitting just outside of the room, ears pressed to the thin walls in order to listen in on the conversation. She wanted to show them - wanted to prove to Kaoru, of them all - that what they wanted in life _mattered._ They didn't have to give ground and do things they didn't want just because they were born into a Clan. That was on their parents, not on _them._

"Mizuki," her father began with a warning tone. He rarely called her by her full name, typically referring to her by the affectionate nickname he'd given her long ago - _Mizu._

" _That_ is not a choice you have," her mother finished. Her long silver hair was brushed back neatly, going down all the way to her hips, and her purple eyes were narrowed in anger. "You need to marry. You're the eldest-"

"I don't _need_ to do anything!" Mizuki countered quickly, interrupting her mother. She heard a stifled gasp behind the walls from one of her sisters, she knew her parents heard it too, but all three of them ignored it. "It was your choice to have kids, not my choice to be born! I'm not required to follow your rules! I wanna marry someone I love, not someone that would be 'beneficial to the Clan'!"

Her mother clenched her hands on her thighs, but her father pleaded with Mizuki in a gentle voice.

"People in arranged marriages learn to love each other, Mizu. I'm sure you and your husband would fall in love over time. Like I said, you'll have years to get to know each other before you're of age. Your mother and I-"

"Were _not_ an arranged marriage!" She interrupted again. She knew this was a rude thing to do repeatedly, knew it would agitate her mother. But the more indignant Mizuki got, upset at their desire to control this aspect of her life, the less she cared about upsetting her mother.

In fact, if she thought a little deeper about it, maybe some childish part of her mind felt _satisfaction_ at making her angry.

She continued, gaining confidence at her parents' stunned quiet. "You _chose_ to marry Otou-san even though he wasn't a member of the Clan! Because you loved him, right?" Her mother pursed her lips. " _Right?_ "

"That's not the same thing, Mizuki."

"Yes it is!" She stands up now, hands clenched. She was stubborn as all hell, and she refused to back down from her point. "It's exactly the same! You were Clan Heir back then, weren't you? When you and Otou-san met? Were you not in an arranged marriage yourself, Okaa-san?"

Her mother looked away. Her father sighed. Surprisingly enough, it was her father who spoke up next.

"Mizuki, this _isn't_ one of those times where you'll get out of this by arguing. What your mother did as Clan Heir isn't important to you right now. You're not even the Clan Heir anymore, you haven't been for years! You need to marry-"

"When I wanna marry, I will! Not any sooner than that!"

Her mother finally, _finally,_ exploded in a burst of anger. She slammed her hand down onto the wooden table between them, leaning forward in her seat with angry eyes. Everyone went silent with the violent outburst, even her father looking shocked.

Her mother spoke coldly, in a low tone.

"If you don't accept an arranged marriage," she stood up from her seat, looking down her nose at her eldest daughter. "...I'll disown you."

There was crying heard just outside the room, and if Mizuki paid enough attention to it she might have realized it was little Suzume, crying from the loud noise that had scared her. Mizuki stared at her mother in quiet disbelief instead, her mind a jumbled mess from emotions. Disown? Her mother would disown her over something like _this?_ Something so small and unimportant? Was it that big of a deal to her to control her daughter's life?

" _Fumiko!_ " Her father hissed, his own eyes wide in surprise. "We would never do such a thing!"

Her mother glared down at him now, angry at anyone who didn't side with her it seemed. "She embarrassed us all by refusing her right as Clan Heir! Do you have _any_ idea the kinds of things said about the Ueno Clan when Kaoru and I went on that trip?"

Her father stood up, taller than her mother and hands nervously waving around as he spoke. "We would _never_ disown our daughter! How could you say something so terrible?!"

Mizuki realized, belatedly, that there were tears leaking from her eyes. She didn't make a sound, didn't sniffle even when she felt like there might be snot dripping from her nose. She looked back and forth between her parents as they argued heatedly with each other. Her mother was very firm in her threat - not only had Mizuki 'embarrassed' the Clan by refusing to do her duties as Heir, but she also refused to strengthen the Clan bonds by marrying into another. Her father refuted that no matter what she did, no matter how she decided to live her life, he would never disown her.

Her mother turned away from her father, looking down at her again with narrowed eyes.

"You _will_ marry!"

Mizuki finally let out a sob, and anger burbled in her chest. Something ached so, so bad in her heart, and she wasn't sure which part hurt worse - the idea that her mother cared more about the Clan than she cared about her daughter, or the idea that, if Mizuki didn't do as she was told, her mother could cut ties with her so easily. Like she didn't _matter_ to her at all.

" _DISOWN ME, THEN!_ " She shouted at the top of her lungs, stomping one foot on the tatami mats angrily. "I don't care! I _HATE_ this stupid family anyway! I don't _wanna_ be in it anymore!"

It was a lie, a big, bold-faced lie right to her mother's surprised face. She loved her family so, _so_ much. It was obvious from the way she hurt from her mother's threat - the idea alone of being seperated from them made her rage, made her want to fight to stay. Her sisters were the light of her life, her father the best role model she could have ever asked for. Even when Mizuki was angry at her mother for all the chores she sidled her with, even when they argued over what was most important in the world - _the Clan or personal freedom_ \- she still loved her mother. Still looked up to her as a strong woman with a large weight on her shoulders, someone who took it in stride and had given birth to four beautiful girls in the midst of all her duties as a young Clan Head.

But she was furious. She was angry beyond measure, and everything in her heart told her to _hurt_ them somehow. Make them feel the same ache in their chests that she was being forced to feel.

Her mother was crying now, too, but still looked angry.

"Don't you dare say something like that!"

Mizuki sobbed openly, and she saw the sliding screen door open slowly, three tearful, scared little girls peering through hesitantly. "Well, it's TRUE! _I hate you all!_ "

With those words out of her mouth, flying out too fast for her to take them back and pretend she never uttered them at all, she turned on her heel and ran off as fast as she could. It was hard to breathe from how hard she was trying to suppress the sobs that wanted to climb out of her throat, and her heart ached more and more with every step she took away from her family. She ran out of the door to the room, right past her crying sisters who looked torn between being terrified and being hurt by her words. Then she ran through the halls until she reached the main door, and she tore it open and ran out without caring about putting her sandals on. It was a cold night, the ground was slightly wet from the earlier rain, and her toes squished in the mud in an unpleasant way. Still, Mizuki ran as fast as she could.

She didn't know where she was going, wasn't thinking too hard about it. She just wanted to get _away._

Eventually, she sat down under the shade of a giant wisteria tree, getting mud and rain water all over her clothes. Miserably, she realized her butt was getting wet from the ground, but she didn't stand up again. She looked up at the tree above her and realized, mutely, that this was the place she first met Obito.

Finally, she let herself cry openly. She wailed into the night air, wiping away her tears only for more to immediately take its place. There was definitely snot now, and she messily wiped it away with the sleeve of her shirt. She was sure she looked ugly right now, her face felt hot from anger and tears, but she couldn't find it in her to care at the moment.

It was in this state - covered in mud and gunk and crying in an ugly, 'unbecoming of a lady' kind of way - that her two youngest sisters raced out to find her in.

"Nee-chan?" Noriko called out from a few feet away, her voice wobbly from her own crying. Suzume was clutching Noriko's hands, crying loudly from everything she'd seen and heard yet couldn't understand due to her young age and uninvolvement in all the Clan issues. They both had their sandals on, and Suzume had a jacket a few sizes too big for her tossed over her shoulders. Probably, it had belonged to Noriko when the girl realized her little sister couldn't go out in the cold with just her night clothes on.

Mizuki looked up at them with wide, teary eyes. Her vision was blurry from all the crying, and she hiccupped a few times.

"Did you mean it?" Noriko asked her, stumbling over her words and looking like she'd collapse at any second.

Mizuki knew immediately what she was referring to. She cried again, sniffling loudly. " _No!_ " She wailed, holding out her arms. Noriko and Suzume fell down into her grasp immediately, eager for comfort. " _No_ , I love you! I'm so-" she hiccupped, "I'm _so sorry_ I said that! I didn't mean it, I promise!"

Suzume clutched onto her elder sister's shirt and cried heavily. Mizuki doubted the young girl knew what was going on, _why_ everyone was shouting and crying and running away, but she cried anyway.

"I love you too, nee-chan!" Noriko bawled loudly, trying desperately to fit into her sister's lap despite not being the little girl she was years ago when she used to climb on her for comfort. Mizuki allowed it anyway, even when Noriko's knee was hurting her thigh, and she held both sisters close to herself.

Maybe, if she weren't so emotional and unable to think clearly, she would have wondered why Kaoru hadn't come out with them.

Inside the Clan House, her mother sat on the ground with her face in her hands, weeping. Her father had one hand on her back in an attempt to comfort his wife, his other hand holding onto Kaoru's. The young girl sniffled, trying to hold back the tears in her eyes, and she hugged her mother as best as she could - hugged her tight, just like Mizuki had always done whenever Kaoru was upset about something, squeezing her until Kaoru complained about the hug being too tight.

"It's okay, okaa-san," Kaoru whispered in a thick voice, something emotional caught in her throat in a painful way. "I still love you."

* * *

Things were tense for months.

For the first week and a half after the argument, Mizuki didn't see hide nor hair of her mother _or_ of Kaoru. Both seemed to always be busy with something beyond the Clan compound whenever Mizuki was home, or busy with something inside when she was out and about in the village. A part of her wanted to be angry, to find her mother and tell her that _she_ was being the childish one here and avoiding her issues…

But the bigger part of her was glad for it, honestly. She didn't know if she could handle a confrontation so soon after the main argument had happened.

She cried herself to sleep for a few days after it happened, and her father would sometimes hear her sniffling under her comforter and come in to hold her for a while. He promised her that he would never let something like that happen, and even told her that her mother hadn't meant it at all. She refused to listen when he tried to defend his wife, standing firm in the idea that, if she were truly sorry about her words, she'd come home and _apologize_ for them.

Most nights, her sisters would come into her room to sleep with her. Sometimes they brought their own futons, sometimes they didn't, but they always ended up cuddling close enough to hold onto her at some point in the night. They wanted - needed - comfort, and Mizuki was glad enough for their affection to distract her from the pain of her mother's words.

After two weeks of them sneaking into her room at night, they were finally told to go back to sleeping in their own rooms. Suzume had cried about it, calling out to her eldest sister with grabby hands, but she'd eventually been soothed enough to go back to her own room. Noriko simply accepted the order with a frown and a nod.

Mizuki first talked to her mother again three weeks after the original argument. She'd knocked on her door, asked her for permission to take Suzume a little further beyond the Clan compound than she usually did. Her mother had replied in a cool, even tone that she was fine with it as long as she stayed within earshot of the guards so she could call out to them if something happened. Mizuki had paused in the doorway. She'd gotten the answer to her question, sure, but something felt… incomplete. She wanted to say something more.

"Is there anything else?" Her mother asked without looking up from the papers laid in front of her.

"No, okaa-san," Mizuki demurred politely, shutting the door and leaving without another word. Just inside the room, shortly after the young girl left, her mother would pause in her writing and put her head in her hands. She would wonder how it all fell apart so quickly, and she would wonder if it was too late to fix things.

Mizuki held Suzume's hand in her own as they walked slowly. The young girl was two years and six months of age now, and while she was getting better and better at walking without wobbling or tripping over her own feet, she demanded to hold onto something as they went on their trip together anyway.

Noriko was on her other side, talking animatedly about something or another. Sometimes she skipped as they went, smiling and pointing to various colorful posters they passed as they moved through a few pop-up stalls just down the street from their Clan Compound. Sometimes she stopped to prod at something she saw on the ground, and the other two girls had to stop and wait for her to catch up again. "Sorry!" She'd say with a smile and a laugh, "It was just a rock!"

They eventually reached a stall that sold little candies. They had a wide range of them - hard sours, chewy fruit flavored candies, suckers - and Mizuki had planned on using her own money that she'd saved up from allowances to buy something for her sisters. Noriko had a bit of her own money, but she was terrible at saving and typically bought something the moment she got her allowance in. Suzume was too young to start earning money - she'd begin getting hers when she turned three in a few months.

"Up, nee-chan," Suzume held her arms up wide for Mizuki to grab. With a smile, she picked up her little sister and rested her on her hip, high up enough for her to look over the stall and see the selection of treats the man running it was selling.

"Well, what a trio of _sweeties!_ " He laughed at his own joke. Mizuki didn't find it that funny and Suzume was too busy staring at the colorful candies to care about it, but Noriko apparently found it _hilarious._ She laughed long and loud, and inched closer to the stall to rest her chin on the wood.

"You're funny, ojii-chan!" She grinned brightly, referring to the man with an affectionate title of _old man_. Mizuki wondered, with a hidden grin, if Noriko had actually found it funny or if she was just trying to get something half-off by being all cutesy.

The six year old brunette may have had the attention span of a butterfly floating along the wind, but she had her puppy eyes down perfectly and knew just when to use them.

"Why, thank you! My wife doesn't like my jokes all that much," he winked with a grin good-naturedly, and Mizuki finally cracked a smile at him. Okay, maybe, just _maybe_ he was a little bit funny. Noriko laughed again, then tugged on Mizuki's shirt sleeve.

"Nee-chan, can I get this one?" She pointed to a bucket containing what looked like colorful, sour candy drops. Mizuki nodded without hesitation, and Noriko grinned and bounced up and down on her heels. "Hurry up and choose, Suzume!"

"Don't rush her," Mizuki scolded gently. Suzume leaned over and plucked a red sucker off the wooden stall, holding it up right in front of her elder sister's face.

"This one! It's red!" Mizuki smiled. Red was, apparently, Suzume's newest favorite color. She went through them quickly, choosing new favorites every month or so and wanting to redecorate her room to match it.

Mizuki plucked the sucker from her sister's hand so she wouldn't start eating it before it was paid for, and the man behind the stall hummed a little tune as he put a handful of candy drops into a small plastic bag. He smiled at her as she handed over the appropriate amount of money.

"Nothing for you, young lady?" He asked curiously.

"No thank you," she answered politely, taking the sucker and sour drops in one hand and turning to walk off with her sisters. "Have a nice day!"

He watched them go with a genial wave.

They walked for a few more minutes, looking for somewhere to sit. Noriko wanted to eat her candy as they walked, but Mizuki was adamant that it would taste better if they could sit together somewhere pretty. Suzume said nothing, but her wisteria purple eyes never left the sucker in her sister's hands as they moved from place to place. Finally, after wandering around for another few quiet moments, she found a nice wooden bench to sit in with her sisters. Noriko plopped down and looked at her elder sister eagerly, only pulling back when she finally got her hands on the bag of candies.

"Don't eat them all at once, you'll hurt your tummy," Mizuki warned lightly as she put Suzume down with care. The youngest girl made grabby hands, and Mizuki handed over the sucker without much prompting.

Noriko offered some vague words of understanding as she began chewing on her sour drops, but Mizuki was immediately distracted with something that caught her eye.

Up, high up on the rooftops above where they were sitting, there was a familiar figure in an animal themed mask. They were turned away from the girls, so Mizuki couldn't quite see their front, but she saw an odd design of swirls in red ink on the person's left shoulder. She thought it looked rather pretty. They were crouched on the roof, looking at something in the distance that Mizuki couldn't see. She remembered, vaguely, her father having once told her that Shinobi always knew when they were being watched. As soon as the thought flitted through her mind, the figure turned around to stare right at her.

She looked right into the eye holes of the mask, into one dark eye. The other eye was shut tightly. She wondered if they were half-blind, and then thought about how hard it must be to be a half-blind Shinobi.

She offered a small wave to them, and they leaned back a bit as if in surprise.

Then, finally, it clicked. Wild, spiky grey hair - dark eyes - fair skin - the same dark blue shirt that crept up underneath the animal mask the person wore. _Likely covering the lower half of the face._

She looked up with wide brown eyes. Was this…?

"Kakashi?" She called, hesitantly. She didn't understand that ANBU identities were a secret - she didn't know that only the Hokage was supposed to know who was or was not in the ANBU ranks. The only thought on her mind at the time was _thank Kami he's okay._

It'd been so, so long since she saw him last. She had so many things to say to him, to ask him. She wanted to know why she never saw Obito or Rin again, she wanted to ask why he never came over for dango - oh, right, she mentally slapped her own forehead, he doesn't even like it! She wanted to ask him how he was doing, like he'd asked her all that time ago on the concrete bench. It seemed as if it's been _forever_ since they spoke last, and she wanted to tell him about the things she's been dealing with. She wanted to… She wanted…

She just wanted to _talk_ to him, to be near him. She _missed_ him.

But the moment his name left her lips, his one black eye widened in surprise and he disappeared in a flicker, just like he'd done when she last saw him across the street from her oh so long ago.

Noriko stood from her seat and looked up at where her sister had been staring at.

"Kakashi?" She spoke curiously. "What's a Kakashi? Did you see something, nee-chan?"

Mizuki stared at the empty space quietly, feeling oddly as if she had just been rejected for some reason. "No," she answered after a moment. "There's nothing there." Noriko still felt like something had spooked her elder sister, but nodded quietly and offered a sour drop to her sister as a means of comfort. Mizuki smiled.

The three girls spent an hour just sitting on that wooden bench, talking to each other and eating their respective candies. When Suzume kicked her feet and began getting fussy, unhappy and restless with too much energy thanks to the sugar she'd just had, they finally walked back home. Mizuki sat on the back porch as she supervised her sisters playing together, working off the sugar together until they were tired. Her father scolded her lightly for letting them have something sugary so soon before dinner time, but he'd let it go with a quick glance to Noriko's expertly done puppy eyes.

The next day, Mizuki went alone to the same bench. She didn't quite know why - some part of her knew that, logically, he wouldn't be in the same place again. She knew he wouldn't just be there, waiting for her like she hoped he was.

As expected, he was nowhere to be found. She tried again the next day, with the same results. She let it go for a week, then tried again, only to find an elderly couple taking up the bench. No young boys with red swirls on their shoulders stood on the roof behind them.

After that, she just about forgot about it all. Well, no, that's not accurate. She stopped trying, stopped going back to look for him in all the spots they'd met with each other before, but she never _forgot._ Inexplicably, she found that she still thought about him quite often. She wanted to know why one of his eyes was shut. Was he injured? Was he okay? Did he need help? Did he need a friend?

Whenever Mizuki got hurt, a scrape from playing too rough with some Ueno boys or a papercut from bringing reports to her father on slow days, she always wanted someone to be there for her. She liked when someone was there to smile at her and tell her it was just a small cut and she had nothing to worry about. Even if she knew it already, it was just… nice. To have someone be there for you when you were hurting. She wanted to be there for Kakashi. She wondered if he had anyone else in his life for him. Did he have family? Did he have friends?

She wondered why she never saw Obito and Rin again.

A few more months went by in relative silence. Kaoru grew distant from her older sister, and though it hurt Mizuki to think her torn relationship with her mother was ruining her relationship with her sister as well, she never sought out Kaoru to try to fix it. Her father had once told her that Kaoru needed time and space to figure out what she wanted to do, so Mizuki resolved to keep her distance and let her sister come to her when she was ready.

Her mother made a few attempts at smoothing things over, offering to walk with Mizuki down to the river to feed the fish or to paint with her again like they had when she was a little girl. Every time Mizuki considered the requests, that little burble of anger in her chest grew hot all over again. She refused every attempt, sometimes in silence. Sometimes, regrettably, with scathing words.

"Why not take Kaoru with you? She's your _favorite_ daughter, right?"

She stayed up late on those nights, when her mother would flinch like she'd been physically hurt and walk away without another word. She laid in her futon and, sometimes, cried all over again. She was opening her own wounds time and time again and she didn't know how to stop it.

She was never disowned, even a full year after the argument had taken place. Even after Mizuki had turned thirteen years old. She kept living in the Clan Compound, kept sleeping in her own room on her own futon, kept being referred to as _Mizuki Ueno-sama_. Every day she played with her two youngest sisters, and in the evenings she helped her father cook lunch. He even paid attention to her interest in sweets, buying more baking supplies for her to test out different styles and different recipes.

Two months after she turned thirteen, a tragedy struck.

 _Kyuubi_ , they called it as they ran around in a blind panic. A monster. A beast bigger than any building in Konoha, with nine tails and fur that looked blood-red under the moonlight. It was under that same moonlight when she first laid her eyes on it, as her father gripped her hand tightly and carried a sobbing Suzume in his arms. Noriko was holding onto Mizuki's hand behind her, and Kaoru held onto Noriko's. They formed a chain link, holding tight to each other as they ran. She could hear Noriko's sobs and Kaoru's quiet, panicked breaths as they moved, following behind their father.

Mizuki was just… stunned to silence. She stared at the raging beast with wide brown eyes. It reared its giant, ugly head into the sky and opened its mouth wide, showing off all the rows of sharp teeth that looked longer than Mizuki was tall.

She let go of her father and sister's hands as the beast roared loud and angrily into the night air. It was so loud that she felt the ground shake beneath her. Even underneath the hands clamped tightly to her ears, tears pricked her eyes as the sound reverberated through her ribcage.

" _Mizuki!_ " She heard someone scream her name. Her sister, maybe - or her father. She couldn't tell which. Everything felt muddled and blurry, all the sounds surrounding her becoming muted and barely recognizable.

She looked up with tearful brown eyes to see her father reaching toward her with wide eyes. Her sisters were all by his side, crying and scared. She wanted to call out to them, tell them that it was okay, that she would never let harm come to any of them.

Something flew towards her. For a split second, she felt searing pain on her forehead, hot and wet with something warm.

When that split second was over, her world turned dark.


End file.
